An international network plans to use AI against global inequality

Develop artificial intelligences that take into account emerging countries and reduce global injustice, is the objective of the International Computing and AI Network (ICAIN), an initiative presented today at the Davos Forum which already has its first pilot project underway.

The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the prestigious polytechnic schools of Lausanne and Zurich, in collaboration with several partners, have launched this network, which aims to promote international research projects whose objectives are aligned with those of the UN for sustainable development. .

To this end, the founders hope to expand access to supercomputing, data and software infrastructures, as well as knowledge of artificial intelligence, to a larger community of users.

“The capabilities to develop generative models of AI They are currently in the hands of private companies.”highlighted the Secretary of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexandre Fasel, who recalled that many of these companies are concentrated in a few regions of the world and ignore the cultural or linguistic characteristics of less favored countries.

In this situation, ICAIN adopts a bottom-up approach, in which researchers will be able to submit project applications and thus access resources that they would not otherwise be able to access.

The founding members have already launched the first pilot project, developed together with the pan-African NGO Data Science Africa, which seeks to apply artificial intelligence to create agriculture more resilient to climate change.

This and other pilot projects will be developed throughout 2024, as well as the governance rules and coordination processes that ensure the financing of the initiative, so it is expected that all ICAIN organizational structures will be implemented by 2025.